


Everyone Loves Different

by SereneCalamity



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Jonathan's Not Good With Words, Kissing, M/M, Nancy Has To Figure Out Their Awkwardness, Steve's a Big Teddy Bear, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-12 20:12:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12967515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneCalamity/pseuds/SereneCalamity
Summary: Steve was loud, wanting to show off his girlfriend to everyone. Jonathan was reserved, preferring to show his affection in private. And then things got a bit more complicated when the two boys realized their feelings for each other.





	Everyone Loves Different

**Author's Note:**

> Had to write another one about these guys.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.

Nancy Wheeler was in a relationship with two very different people.

There was Steve Harrington.

Steve was the captain of the basketball team and one of the most popular guys in school, friends with a lot of people. He was confident and self assured, and he loved showing off Nancy. He would kiss her when they walked down the hallway and twine their fingers together when they were walking side by side and pick her up and swing her around when he was excited or happy about something. He told Nancy he loved her, he would buy her flowers and take her to parties, and when something was wrong, he talked about it. He loved showing Nancy—and everyone else—that he loved her.

Second, there was Jonathan Byers.

Jonathan wasn't into sports or any team like activity, really. He was a bit of a loner, preferring to look at the world through the lens of his camera, at a distance. He was smart, although he kept that to himself, not answering questions when they were asked in class, and he wasn't top of the class, so he didn't get called out for it. He wasn't obvious with how he felt about Nancy, if someone didn't know what to look for, then they would miss it. When he was out in public, he didn't really look at her and he was hardly ever seen touching her. He didn't really like talking all that much either—to anyone—especially when there were other people around. But when they were alone, when it was just the three of them, he would reach out and run his fingers through her hair. He would cuddle her in close to his side and he would press his lips to her temple.

Nancy got confused a lot, to begin with. She wanted to make sure she showed equal attention to both of them, not wanting to play favourites or have anyone left out. It was an awkward arrangement, and there wasn't really any right or wrong way to do it. Nancy had gone from having no boyfriend to two boyfriends in the matter of a year.

Sure, she had kissed some boys and fooled around, but she had never really been someone that got noticed.

It had been weird when Steve had started talking an interest in her, and at first she had thought that it had just been about sex. Barbara Holland, who had been her best friend since they were in kindergarten, had been happy for her, because Steve was 'a total catch' but she had also told her to be careful. It had been great to start with, then it had been totally shit, because his friends Tommy H and Carol were assholes. Then Jonathan's little brother, Will Byers, who was best friends with her little brother, Mike Wheeler, got kidnapped. It caused a strain in her relationship with Steve, because he just didn't get that Nancy didn't have a lot of time for him anymore. Her brother and his friends were grieving, and she wanted to be there for Jonathon, even though they hadn't been particularly close beforehand.

Nancy and Steve had even broken up for a bit, and she had been there when the police had called too say that they had found Will, and Jonathan had been so happy that he had kissed her so hard that their teeth had clinked together.

There was some weirdness for a while as everything settled back down, and Will got back to normal and Jonathan was trying to be there for his brother. Steve had gotten it into his head that Nancy had actually cheated on him for Jonathon, so he had been cold and abrupt with both of them. Nancy was just trying to get her grades back on track and rebuild a relationship with her little brother, realizing how important that was when she saw Jonathan think he had lost it forever.

But they had all come together in the summer holidays.

Steve had been coming home from playing basketball and Jonathan was taking photos at the lake and Nancy was coming back from Barbs'. It was funny, and it was all a weird coincidence that they ran into each other, because usually Steve would be driving home from basketball, and Nancy would get a ride with her mum or with Barbs' and Jonathan liked to take the long way home. But for some reason, they were all walking along the same road at the same time and they had met.

It had been awkward and bumpy at first, and there was a lot of resentment between Steve and Jonathan to begin with, but they worked through it. Nancy liked Steve, but she also liked Jonathan. They both liked her. They said they didn't like each other, but Nancy was pretty sure there was something more to it.

And that was made obvious when they were meant to be meeting at Steve's to help him study and Nancy was running a bit late, and when she had gotten there, she had opened up the door to Steve's room and the boys were laying on the bed, limbs tangled, mouths attached. Nancy hadn't known what to say, and she just stood there, frozen as she watched them. They hadn't wanted to talk about it for a while, but things just seemed to evolve, naturally, as though they were always meant to be like this.

Steve would start taking things further when Jonathan was in the room, sliding his hand up underneath Nancy's skirt.

Jonathan wouldn't hide his glances and touches when Steve was around, and he would sometimes kiss her when Steve was watching, which was a big step for him.

Nancy told them both that she was okay with what was going on, she was okay with both of them together. They were in 2017, it wasn't as though being gay or bisexual was something that needed to be hidden, and even relationships with more than one person wasn't something that was unheard of. Maybe it wasn't common, but it was more spoken about than it once was.

At first they didn't talk at all, which suited Jonathon.

Jonathan hated talking.

But that didn't work, because when they didn't talk, there was confusion and there were hurt feelings.

It was a few months into the school year when Jonathan and Steve actually became a thing. Before then, it had been Nancy with Steve, and Nancy with Jonathan. Some people _assumed_ that Jonathan and Steve were also together, but they weren't. They just both loved the same girl.

Nancy got sick of dancing around the issue, of the way the boys would sometimes be so close when they were alone—they would hold hands, they would sometimes kiss, they would touch each other softly—and then when they were in public, they acted like they barely knew each other. Maybe that was just how Jonathan compartmentalized, and Nancy didn't want to change him, she loved him the way he was, but she could see how much it hurt Steve. She was pretty sure that they got even more distant in public _after_ she had caught them on the bed together.

The hurt feelings went both ways, and it wasn't unusual for Nancy to find herself in the middle of a cold war, where the boys were both refusing to admist that there was something wrong, so there was just this awkward tension filling the room as they spoke snippily to each other.

She put a stop to it one Sunday afternoon when her parents were out, and her Mike was out with his friends. They were up in her room and they were meant to be studying, but she was the only actually doing any studying, while Jonathan was flipping through his latest photos and Steve was playing on his phone. She looked up at them—at Steve sitting up at the top of her bed, resting against the pillows, and then at Jonathan down the other end of the bed, as though trying to get the farthest away from him that he could—and she let out an annoyed huff.

"Nancy, what's wrong?" Steve asked, immedietly putting down his phone. Jonathan didn't say anything, but he lost interest in his photos, looking over at her in concern.

"You!" Nancy snapped and Steve's eyebrows lifted. " _And_ you!" She added as she whipped her glare around to look at Jonathan, not letting the other boy think that he was off the hook. "I'm _sick_ of it!" Steve looked over at Jonathan and swallowed nervously, attempting to give her a smile.

"Sick of what?" He tried, pretending that everything was okay.

"Don't you give me that, Steve Harrington," Nancy growled. "You two know exactly what you're doing." Jonathan shuffled a little down the other end of the bed, and Nancy tried to swallow back her anger, because Jonathan never did well with full on confrontation. She took in a deep breath through her nose and stared down at her duvet cover. "You two like each other. We both know it. I don't want you guys to keep just using me as an excuse to hang out and act as though you don't mean anything to _each other_. It hurts too much to see you guys hurting each other." She looked at Jonathan, who was biting down on his lower lip, and then over at Steve, who was scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. " _Please_ talk to each other." Jonathan hand lifted to his hair, fiddling with the long strands of his fringe.

They had talked.

It had been awkward and stilted, but Nancy had gently guided them through it. Sometimes Steve couldn't believe how incredible she was, how lucky he was to have both her and Jonathan in his life.

They were both still so different.

Steve was loud and he was showy and he was tactile.

Jonathan was quiet and understated and hated PDA.

Nancy was everything in between, but she was no longer the thing that kept them together. There was a long thread between the boys now, one that was just as strong as the ties that bound them to Nancy.

Steve didn't push Jonathan, although sometimes he would give him a quick kiss on the cheek, or squeeze his fingers when they were at school or out at the mall. Nancy did the same, occasionally wrapping an arm around his waist or running her fingers through his hair.

Jonathan was okay with that, given they knew not to crowd him, and the longer they were together, the more he opened up to both of them. Sometimes he would even initiate contact—which wouldn't be anything crazy, like making out with either of them or wrapping them in a hug when they were in public—but he would take their hands, link their fingers together and brush his thumb against their palms, or sometimes play with Steve's hair, coz the guy was like a cat purring whenever his hair was touched.

In private, he was even more open to them, and when Nancy said that she loved them, one night when they were laying out on a blanket in the backyard of Steve's house, staring up at the night sky, Jonathan said it back without hesitation. Steve had just laughed and rolled over, sprawling his long limbs over them both, announcing thhat they both knew how much he loved both of them.

They all loved differently, and that's what made it work.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
